Nursing Profession....alot or misrerable people?

Are there a lot of miserable people in nursing? I read alot of negative things about it

I have been an RN for almost 17 years.

There are days when I wish I had a different job, but there are MANY more days when I am thankful for the choices I made to get to where I am now ...

Every time I make a scared, sick or injured child smile ...

Every time a patient or their family member tells me "thank you" ...

Every time I have someone stop me on the street or in the mall and tell me that I made their ER visit a pleasant experience ...


There is no such thing as a perfect career.
No matter what you choose to do in this life there will be challenges and frustrations.

The secret is to find a way to make a living doing what you enjoy. If you are happy in what you do your mood will affect those around you.

I think it depends on the type of person. My best friend is an NICU nurse and she would rather be doing that than almost anything. The only other thing she would rather be is a Vet.

If someone is caring and compassionate and INTELLIGENT, nursing is a good profession and one that will always be there.

I think you have two to three classifications of nursing staff-
The type that only wants the higher pay (money job)
The type that loves the nursing profession
The type that loved the profession once, and is burned out.
I happen to love my job and can't wait to branch out into the different fields.

I think the problem is that many people get into the profession for the money they can make. Different from the old days because women used to get into nursing because they had a passion for people or they liked the care and nuture part. ...and the job had prestige...it was glorified with the white uniforms and the exclusive knowledge.

Now the job requires people to put in long hours. Often you are forced to do OT, and then you have trouble sleeping because of shift work and because of some of the gruesome stuff you see. Tons of nurses are single parents and have outside stressors and/or committments.

After some time they start to hate to come to work, and deflect their misery onto other staff and the patients. Then they go on stress leave. Then they come back and decide to make everyone's life miserable. Its a hard profession but if you go into it like its your career and want to make a difference it will be fine!